If I had any lingering doubts regarding my decision to resign from the Conservative Caucus to sit as an Independent in the House of Commons, this week's Cabinet shuffle certainly removed them. The facelift did nothing to restore an appropriate balance between the front and back benches.

Certainly if all the rumours are to be believed, a shuffle, supposedly a large one is due in the next few weeks. The signs are there with departments preparing ministerial transitional briefing books and talk about a cabinet retreat in the third week of July beginning to circulate.